'Runescape Classic' will shut down after almost two decades

PS4 exclusive 'Detroit' is a flawed depiction of race in America

Last Week on Massively: WoW-related stories

The Gaming Iconoclast: Deity not includedThe fantasy-based worlds our characters inhabit are, almost without exception, richly steeped in legend and brimming with lore. This is doubly true for those that have come to parturition after having existed outside of the digital realm.

Anti-Aliased: It will all be fine in ten minutesBack in the day when a 500 Mhz processor was fast, we were lulled into these weird online universes with multitudes of golden tongued promises. "Play online with thousands of others!", "Make a hero and save detailed and vast worlds!"

Where the Activision Blizzard merger standsShock and awe hit the gaming industry on December 2, 2007, on that morning two giants announced a deal worth 18.8 billion dollars. Activision and Vivendi Games are to merge, a monstrosity in the making set to rival Electronic Arts for the throne to the word's biggest and most profitable force in game development and business.

Account hacked? Why not stop and smell the flowers?It happens to the best of us. We try to be careful, we try to be conscientious, and then the unthinkable happens: your MMO account gets hacked. You log in to find your virtual life has been torn asunder. What happens then?

One gamer's descent into powerlevelingAt the end of last year, the Australian version of gaming blog Kotaku put up a series on the lengths to which one gamer went to experience World of Warcraft. He had already made the decision to quit the game, and decided to give it one last go via a power-leveled character.

Behind the Curtain: Why bother?What is it that keeps us playing, months and years after our first trip through the character generation screen? The obvious answer is that we're still having fun. Maybe you've been playing World of Warcraft since release or earlier, you've got an alt of every class ...

The Digital Continuum: Live event adulationYou may or may not have heard, but we're coming to Planetside to kick some worldwide hide. At least that's the plan, but whatever happens -- win or lose -- I'm just excited to be a part of an epic, cataclysmic in-game event. It's the kind of thing I've always wanted to see more of ...

Gaming's best kept secret: World of WarcraftLike a child taking his first step, a non-gamer encountering his first MMO is something to be cherished. Two wolves, one cow, and one top-heavy avatar later, Patrick Howe's first foray into "so-called" massively multiplayer games already has him wondering about addiction.

MMOs thought to account for health of PC gamingPlayers and pundits alike have been pointing to NPD figures as an indicator that PC gaming is in a decline compared to console sales. However, as pointed out by Randy Stude, PC Gaming Alliance president and Intel gaming program director in a recent interview, these figures ignored MMO subscription sales, something NPD hadn't been tracking until earlier this year.

PvP servers are an unstoppable forceIf you happen to run into him, don't tell him we said this, but we keep very close e-tabs Ryan "Blackguard" Shwayder, following him around forums and checking his blog rather frequently. It's not that we have some unnatural affection for the man (although we do), it's more of a professional curiosity.